DUE DILIGENCE HORIZON SCANNING RISK PROFILING … DUE DILIGENCE HORIZON SCANNING RISK PROFILING DETERRENCE PLANNING Let us point you in the right direction... CLAIMS. CLAIMS Many problems

DUE DILIGENCE

HORIZONSCANNING

RISK PROFILING

DETERRENCEPLANNING

Let us point you in the right direction...

CLAIMS

CLAIMS

Many problems centre on claims, often for a premium product. Where premiums are available, demand is high or supply is tight, the risk of adulteration or substitution within the supply chain increases.

With food scandals continuing to rock the food and beverage

sector, make sure you’re protected.

From the location in which plants grow or animals are reared and the manner in which they are produced, they pick up an ‘environmental fingerprint’. This fingerprint is specific to the country of origin, region and production system and can be used to check if the product is consistent with the declared claims. Application examples include UK origin, free range, corn fed and organic production.

Products such as Extra Virgin olive oil have to conform to EC standards. A broad suite of testing is available to check for key quality indicators and for common adulteration (refined oils, other oils etc). This test can be combined with environmental fingerprinting to check for consistency with claimed origin as well.

Adulteration can take many forms, but one commonly investigated is C4 adulteration in honey. Honey adulteration can occur when bees are fed high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar instead of making honey from nectar, or the honey is diluted with these products post harvest. This form of adulteration can clearly be detected using an AOAC accredited method. Fruit juice testing is carried out in a similar manner using isotopic water signals to discriminate fresh fruit juice from those made from concentrate.

Established DNA testing methods can be used to determine if the declared species of meat and fish is present in food and feed products as well as detecting adulteration of products with undeclared species. The presence of meat or fish DNA on environmental swabs to monitor contamination/hygiene can be undertaken. Claims on specific varieties of apples, tomatoes etc., can also be checked.

It is possible to batch match between samples of the same product. By profiling a specific supply, samples can be tested against this to determine if they are genuinely from the same supply. Useful for wine, eggs, approved blends as well as specific location sourced products.

There is a wide range of other tests available, some of which are familiar, such as nutritional composition, pesticide residues, illegal dyes, allergens, GMOs. Also, there is a range of more specialist tests such as pollen identification for forage type in honey, natural vanilla (rather than synthetic vanillin) etc.

Let us talk you through some of the available tests...Origin & Production System

Quality

Adulteration

Speciation & Variety

Batch match

Other tests

Having a robust and comprehensive testing regime will ensure the integrity of your products, helping to manage risk and provide consumer confidence in the claims you are making. Understanding available tests forms an important part of this.

Where to start?What tests are available?How can we demonstrate due diligence?How do we identify high risk areas?What should we do with these results?What follow up should we put in place?

Name & Registered Office: Food Forensics Limited, Innovation Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7GJ. Company No. 07647866.

+44 (0)1603 [email protected] www.foodforensics.co.uk

CONTACT US

ADVICE & GUIDANCE

RISK PLANNING

CUSTOM SOLUTIONS

We can help answer your questions!

Alison Johnson - Managing Director +44 (0)7957 002410 [email protected]

Mark Hughes - Technical Services Director +44 (0)7837 [email protected]

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